Even those of us forced to follow the MAGA cultists on Twitter were taken aback by the response to the tragic injury to Damar Hamlin live on Monday Night Football.
To summarize, though most know, from the Buffalo News:
Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field following a tackle and was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was in critical condition Monday night, leaving teammates in tears and fans stunned at Paycor Stadium and in family rooms in Buffalo and across the nation.
An easier-to-read format can be found HERE.
The hit was not hard, nor was the hit to the head or even neck. Indeed, it was a “normal play” in the NFL, a hit to the chest. Tragically, something about the hit caused Hamlin’s heart to either go into an extremely dangerous arrhythmia and then stop or stop immediately. No one knows the cause, though coming immediately after a blow to the chest means the causes are likely limited.
The MAGAs on Twitter knew exactly what caused Hamlin’s heart to stop. It was a clot caused by the vaccine, or what they call the “clot shot,” that resulted in a heart attack. This morning, “clot” is trending near number one on Twitter, not because a clot is a possibility (It can never be ruled out with a sudden heart problem), but because the COVID vaccine, on very rare occasions, can cause blood clots. Never mind that COVID - the virus - is known to cause far more clots, especially in young black men.
I have selected two random (not even good) examples of the tweets because your time is valuable. I could set out two thousand.
Obviously, not a single doctor, cardiologist, or thoracic trauma surgeon would dare diagnose what happened last night, not without examining the patient and running a dozen tests. Those happen to be the people that know what they’re talking about, unlike the conspiracy theory denizens on Twitter. But the conspiracy theorists on Twitter already know and already know that when they hear the true cause, they know it will be wrong. It will be disinformation.
Despite the fact that the vaccine has been known to cause extremely rare blood clots, COVID itself is known to cause blood clots with far greater frequency. This is from CNN in May of 2020 - there was no vaccine available in May of 2020:
Careful autopsies of 10 African-American victims of coronavirus show their lungs were clogged with blood clots, researchers reported Wednesday.
All 10 patients had underlying conditions that have been shown to worsen infection, including high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. But genetic factors could also be at play, the team at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine said.
Did Hamlin - fully vaccinated - have an undiagnosed, symptom-free case of COVID that caused a blood clot to enter his heart or lungs? How the hell would I know? I’m a political analyst, not even a cardiologist or surgeon. It is not the point. The point is, to the extent that the vaccine causes clots, it causes far fewer than COVID itself.
How do I know this, despite being a political writer? Because I listen to MD scientists who review data and - this is key, I am not a conspiracy theorist who believes that the CDC, Pfizer, the government, and Bill Gates down through the list, are terrible people trying to kill us.
IF one wants to know the leading medical theory, and that is all that it is, a theory, as to what happened, it is a condition whereby a blow to the chest at precisely the wrong time (We are talking within milliseconds) causes the heart to go into a fatal arrhythmia:
And if one wants to see how it happens to a man that survived and was defibrillated almost immediately and eventually ended up playing again, this is Christ Pronger, a hockey player, experiencing a blow from the puck at the wrong time. Again, I show this because it is the leading theory, and Pronger lived a healthy life, playing hockey again. Of course, he was defibrillated almost immediately.
Doctors could see that a puck hit Pronger’s chest and immediately thought, “heart.” Unfortunately, last night, the football medical staff may - understandably - be so conditioned to think “Head or Neck Injury” that they didn’t immediately think “Heart condition” and perhaps didn’t defibrillate Hamlin right away.
The fact that Hamlin is sedated and on a ventilator in Cincinnati is indicative of far more serious damage than Pronger experienced. Ten minutes of CPR can obviously cause brain damage. We cannot know his prognosis until the doctors at the University of Cincinnati provide some kind of update.
What can be said with certainty is that, once again, this unregulated disinformation on Twitter will cause more deaths than lives saved. It is possible that absolutely nothing could have saved Hamlin from the injury last night. But, given that none of us are guaranteed anything day to day, the single best way to protect oneself and one’s family is to refuse to believe there is some giant conspiracy out to hurt you and trust that the scientists who both developed and tested the vaccine did so because they wanted to save lives and have data that proves they do.
When you inevitably run into the Fox-watching, Breitbart-reading, DeSantis-voting brother-in-law, you now have some answers and data to fight the ridiculous theory.
For Hamlin:
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I wrote today to provide what I think is critical information to combat vicious disinformation.
No beach today as you understand.
This miss-information/propaganda, will cause other RW dummies to die! These RW twitter idiots are clueless, to the endangerment they're causing their OWN! The Majority believe in Science & staying HEALTHY with Vaccinations!